Key points:
• Congolese women are involved in the exercise of local public authority and thus not entirely absent from political arena.
• Women’s organisations do not have unequivocal positive effects on peace and stability and women’s inclusion alone does not guarantee transformation of institutions but should nonetheless be encouraged.

Note: This briefing paper is part of the outputs from PSRP’s work in DRC, by Rift Valley Institute. It is part of a series of briefing papers, blogs and reports on political settlements and armed actors, based on a case study of the DRC. The work extends RVI’s previous work in the country Usalama (I).